I've never quite understood this. I understand that those with lower numbers get to pick up guys on waivers first. Aside from that, I don't understand how positions change along the way. Do you get a worse position by picking up free agents? Or just picking up guys on waivers? Please explain this to me.

I'm 11th out of 12 on the waiver wire in my league. Since it's highly unlikely (by my understanding) that I'll land Cueto, should I even bother with putting a waiver claim on him? I'd like to improve on a poor spot on the waiver wire if I can't land this guy.

Am I better off just waiting to see if he clears waivers and then picking him up?

Your understanding sounds pretty accurate. Let's say there is a 4 player draft:

pick 1: team apick 2: team bpick 3: team cpick 4: team d

since team d picked last, they get the #1 waiver priority. team c gets #2, team b gets #3 and team a gets the last priority, #4.

When a player is on waivers, the team with the #1 waiver priority gets the first shot at adding the player. So, in this example, if team d does not add a player, team c gets the next shot, then team b and finally team a.

Now, lets say that team c makes a waiver claim on cueto this week. Once they make the claim, they go to the end of the waiver priority list, so the order now goes:

team dteam bteam ateam c

So, the only way for you to improve your waiver priority standing is to not make a waiver claim, while people with a better waiver priority make waiver claims.

Adding a player that is a free agent, and not on waivers, has no affect on the waiver priority ranking.

Unless you actually get your waiver claim it does not effect your standing. So there is no harm in making an unsuccesful claim (it does not hurt to simply try and get cueto). Everything else the previous post said is correct. So the answer to your question is the only thing that changes waiver priority is succesfully claiming a player off of waivers. Once someone gets a claim they go to the bottom of the list and everyone else moves up a slot.

Not unless the league you're playing in allows you to trade waiver priority, which Yahoo does not. I know others have talked about getting a #1 waiver priority as part of a trade, but I don't know which site their league was on. Since you're on Yahoo, you've got no choice but to be patient and let others make claims and drop to the end of the list.

still-hate-francisco-cabrera wrote:Not unless the league you're playing in allows you to trade waiver priority, which Yahoo does not. I know others have talked about getting a #1 waiver priority as part of a trade, but I don't know which site their league was on. Since you're on Yahoo, you've got no choice but to be patient and let others make claims and drop to the end of the list.

thanks for explaining.

What stinks about this is that waivers are unlikely to change at all, except when guys make their debuts (Cueto), or if another team drops a good player.

still-hate-francisco-cabrera wrote:Not unless the league you're playing in allows you to trade waiver priority, which Yahoo does not. I know others have talked about getting a #1 waiver priority as part of a trade, but I don't know which site their league was on. Since you're on Yahoo, you've got no choice but to be patient and let others make claims and drop to the end of the list.

thanks for explaining.

What stinks about this is that waivers are unlikely to change at all, except when guys make their debuts (Cueto), or if another team drops a good player.

Oh well. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to drop to 12th

It varies among leagues, but most would probably agree that the baseball waivers may move slower than football for example. One reason is that there aren't as many "Cueto's" in baseball as there are "Jesse Chatman's" since the roster is so saturated and many players are indistinguishable (at least starting pitchers). On the other hand, some leagues may be active and all owners are free to use their waiver on a setup man who may become a closer, but this is unlikely. Just hope that you get to #1 by the time Kershaw becomes available.

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